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Rules committee advances several Sunshine Task Force appointments and grills task force on voting rule that may conflict with city charter
Summary
The Rules Committee advanced multiple appointees to the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force but continued several organizational seats to allow broader candidate lists. Members debated a contentious SOTF bylaw change that counts a majority of members present for votes; supervisors and the City Attorney said that practice may conflict with City Charter Section 4.104.
The Rules Committee conducted a lengthy hearing on nominations to the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force (SOTF), receiving 23 applications for 10 seats. Candidates represented media, open-government advocates, neighborhood groups and longtime SOTF volunteers; many spoke to priorities such as outreach to underrepresented communities, improved Sunshine training, technology to publish records, and procedures to triage complaints.
A central dispute emerged when SOTF members and supporters described a bylaw amendment that treats a majority of those present at a meeting as the relevant voting majority for task-force decisions. Several Supervisors — and the city attorney in committee — warned that Charter Section 4.104 governs boards and commissions and that the charter cannot be overridden by an advisory body's bylaws. SOTF members said the change was driven by chronic attendance problems, long hearings and vacancies that made it difficult to reach a full-board majority; they argued the change ensured the public could access timely hearings. Committee members urged structural fixes — smaller body size, better attendance enforcement, shorter meetings, and clearer outreach — rather than a bylaws approach that risks conflict with charter provisions. SOTF members present said they would comply with the charter if reappointed and work with supervisors on structural remedies.
On nominations, supervisors recommended continuing consideration of several organizational seats (items 1, 2, 4 and 5) to give appointing organizations time to forward multiple candidates and to increase diversity on the task force. The committee moved forward a slate of individual appointments for other seats (examples include Kit Grant, Michael Kwan, David Pilpel, Bruce Wolf, Chris Hyland and Louise Fisher) and passed a committee report to the full Board so the task force would have quorum for its June meeting. A roll-call vote on one seat recorded Supervisor Merrell voting No and Supervisors Campos and Kim voting Aye; that motion passed.
